The nature of the outer Coat is various, _Membranous_, _Cartilaginous_ and _Stony_; the like _Precipitations_ being sometimes made herein, as in a Stone or Shell; as in that of the Seeds of _Carthamum_, _Lithospermum_, and others. The Designment hereof, being either with respect to the _Seed_ in its state of Generation; as where the Case is either wanting, or at least insufficient of it self, there for its due protection and warmth; or, in its state of _Vegetation_, for the better Fermenting of its Tinctures and _Sap_; the Fermentations of some _Seeds_ not well proceeding, unless they lie in their Stony Casks in the Mould, like Bottled Liquors in Sand. All _Seeds_ have their outer Covers open; either by a particular _Foramen_, as in _Beans_, and other _Pulse_, as is said; or by the breaking off of the _Seed_ from its _Peduncle_ or _Stool_, as in those in _Cucumber_, _Cycory_; or by the entering and passage of a _Branch_ or _Branches_, not only into the Concave thereof near the Cone, but also through the Cone it self; as in _Shells_ and _Stones_. For the sake of this _aperture_ it is, that _Akerns_, _Nuts_, _Beans_, _Cucumbers_, and most other _Seeds_, are in their formation so placed, that the _Radicle_ still standeth next to it; that, upon _Vegetation_, it may have a free and ready passage into the Mould. The Original of the outer Coat, though from Parts of the same substantial nature, yet is differently made. In a _Plum_, the _Seed-Branch_ which runs, as is described, through the Stone, is not naked, but, as is said, invested with a thin _Parenchyma_, which it carries from the Stalk along with it; and which, by the _Ramification_ of the said _Branch_ within the Stone, is in part dilated into a Coat. That of a _Bean_ is from the _Parenchyma_ of the Cod; the superficial part of which _Parenchyma_, upon the large _peduncle_ of the _Bean_ becoming a thin Cuticle, and upon the _Bean_ it self a _cartilaginous_ Coat. The Original of the inner Coat of the _Bean_ is likewise from the inner part of the said _parenchyma_; which first is spred into a long Cake, or that which with the _seed-Branch_ maketh the _peduncle_ of the _Bean_; under which Cake, there is usually a black part or spot; by the length of which, the inner part of the Cake is next inserted into the outer Coat, and spred all over the Concave thereof. This inner Coat, though when the _Seed_ is grown old and dry, ’tis shrunk up, and in most Seeds so far as scarcely to be discern’d; yet in its first and juvenile Constitution, is a very Spongy and Sappy Body; and is then likewise (as the _Womb_ in a pregnant Animal) in proportion very thick and bulky; in a _Bean_, even as one of the _Lobes_ it self: And in a _Plum_ or _apricot_, I think I may safely say, half an hundred times thicker than afterwards, when it is dried and shrunk up; and can scarcely be distinguished from the upper Coat. Upon which Accounts it is, in this estate, a true and fair _Parenchyma_.